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24
LEAGUE ASSAM/PS OP SATTARTHA PRAKASH
thrown in utter darkness (and confusion) and made to suffer
extreme misery It is believed that this chapter, which
treats of the Buddhist and Jain religions will be of immense
help to the followers of other religions and will considerably
add to the stock of knowledge, because the followers of
the Jain Religion do not let anyone else read or copy out
from their religious books. By dint of great efforts made
by the author, and especially also by Shri Sevak Lal Krishna
Das, Secretary, Arya Samaj, Bombay, certain of their books
were obtained This, however, is patent to all : that there
are many people in the world who cannot see their own
faults, but they are ever ready to spot out the short-comings
of others. This is hardly just, for one should find out and
remove one's own short-comings before one proceeds to
discover and remove the faults of others".
Referring to his criticism of the Christian Religion in
-Chapter XIII, the author of
Satyartha Prakash,
in an Intro-
duction to it, says :
There are many
Bhasha
and Sanskrit translations
of the Bible done by well known Missionaries. The perusal
of these has given rise to many doubts in our mind Our
sole aim in writing this chapter is to further the cause of
truth and eradicate error, and not to injure the feelings of
others or do them harm or bring false charges against them.
It will also make it easy for all men to examine the
tenets of Christianity and make a comparative study of them
(with the teachings of the other religions). It will further
augment the knowledge of men concerning religions and
thereby make it easy for them in discriminate between right
and wrong, between desirable conduct and undesirable
conduct, and to embrace
truth
and practice virtue, to
disown error and shun vice. It behoves all men to carefully
study the Books of all religious before they give or publish
their opinions for or against them No subject can be
mutually discussed if the parties to the discussion are not
well acquainted with each other's religion. The ignorant
are apt to
fall easily
into an abyss of superstition and
falsehood. It is in order to (avert that calamity and) save
them from such a consequence that we have briefly